Wow, Google is really making it easy to get a site loaded with good content.  With their photos connected to Picasa, videos on YouTube, documents on Google Docs all quickly and easily meshing together.  Other benefits with Google Sites are Google Maps, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. 

Google is known for its free services:

Picasa - I tried this program a few versions ago, but was not very impressed with the speed or ease of organization.  I had been using ACDSee.  I still ACDSee for raw speed and batch processing.  However, Picasa 3.6, searches your photos for faces and also easily syncs your photos to the web.  They give you a pretty good chunk of storage space. 

YouTube - If you have not watched a video on YouTube, you are in the minority.  This is one of the best places to go if you want to waste a ton of time.  It does also have some very informative videos.  I have most recently used it to advertise my properties through video walk-thoughs and show a terrible company (TomTom) why they should send me a new GPS or even better just give me my money back so I can buy a product that actually works.

Google Docs - Google has made it possible to upload and edit documents on the web.  This is really helpful when it comes to staying organized with my rental properties.  I can access the same document from my home, work or on the road with a quick edit to keep the information current.  I also have used their spreadsheets and forms embeded in webpages.  It turns out that even my dad can keep his new rental site updated.  All he has to do is log into his email (Google of coarse) then click on the Docs link in the upper left corner.  This takes him to a document that I made and shared with him.  It is also posted on his website.  When he rents one of his units, he can easily edit that spreadsheet to show other tenants that it is no longer available.  They have recently started to let you upload any type of file to Google Docs.  Only word, excel and powerpoint documents are editable, but they give you 10 GB of data storage for free. 

Google Maps - This is probably the greatest product I have used on the web.  It is so easy to find places.  Now I just wish I could afford the Nexus One so I could take advantage of their products on the go like their free GPS Navigation software.  How many times have you printed off a Google Map? 

Google Analitics - This is not for everyone.  It is however a great way to see how your advertising is paying off.  For example, I have a few rental properties.  I have a website that I put information on those properties.  I use various places to advertise my properties such as Craigslist, local papers, mailers, yard signs etc.  With Google Analyitics, I can see where my time and money is paying off.  They will keep track of all the details of how people get to my sites (link from Craigslist, Google search etc), if they come back, what pages they looked at, and on and on. 

Google Webmaster Tools - These I am just starting to use.  These tools are there to help you optimize your site for the search engines. You can upload a sitemap to help Google find all your pages.  You can tell which pages you don't want Google to include in their search results.  I know there is more but I have not figured it all out yet. (Add: /system/feeds/sitemap to your Webmaster Tools for each of your sites)

All around, Google is causing me to spend much more of my life on the web.  Is this a bad thing?  I am not sure yet, but it is still fun for now.